Bronzing is a lustrous sheen of a printed sample in reflected light which can be associated with certain dyes. Specifically, bronzing refers to a reddish-brown color of the ink upon drying. It is particularly an undesirable property of black inks because of lowered optical densities produced. However, it also can affect other colors such as cyan, producing a reddish tone. Additionally, bronzing is an undesirable print characteristic which can prevent color attributes from being measured.
One solution proposed to eliminate or reduce bronzing has been to raise the pH of the ink. However, it has been found that raising the pH of an ink can cause materials degradation of printheads that are used to jet the ink. Thus, an alternative means of reducing or even eliminating bronzing of ink-jet inks printed on print media would be an advancement in the art.